Many associate the safety position at OSU with one man: Jack Tatum. That might soon change.
The Assassin was a two-time unanimous All-American who terrorized opponents with big hits, helping the Buckeyes bring home a pair of national titles during his career. His counterpart in the secondary, Mike Sensibaugh, was no slouch either, setting a career record for interceptions that still stands while earning a pair of All-American honors for himself.
Three decades later, a three-time All-American would roam the secondary in Columbus and help bring home a championship. Mike Doss surprised many when he returned for his senior season in 2002, but his presence became the focal point of a defense stocked with talent and anchored a magical run that ended in the Arizona desert.
While five other Buckeye safeties have earned All-America honors since Doss's time on campus (Donte Whitner was a safety, not a corner IMO), none have made an impact like the one currently wearing that same #2 jersey.
Some might believe such a statement to be hyperbolic, but the way Caleb Downs' coaches and teammates talk about him more than justifies the superlative PFF grades and a place among the top expected picks in April's NFL draft.
- "His football savviness is just incredible." - Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia
- "I call him Coach Downs, actually. He just knows so much football.” - cornerback Davison Igbinosun
- "You don’t find too many college guys like him. He’s different… He has an elite mind." - Co-DC/secondary coach Tim Walton
Though Downs joined a veteran unit returning eight starters last year, Downs quickly emerged as the key cog on a unit that continued to get better as the season progressed. The Buckeyes relied heavily on man-coverage schemes throughout the season, playing Cover-1 27.9% of the time with Downs either dropping deep into center field from his free safety spot, or matched up one-on-one against a tight end.
After the disappointing mid-season loss to Oregon, however, the Silver Bullets employed far more zone schemes that allowed Downs to read and react from spots in the middle of the defense. With an otherworldly ability to read and react to opposing offenses, Downs' impact became impossible to ignore, becoming a regular topic in last season's Film Study video reviews.
By the time the Buckeyes lifted the CFP in Downs' home state of Georgia, there was no question about who was the most important piece in Jim Knowles' defense. With eight starters graduating to the NFL, Downs' importance to the program in 2025 was universally understood, even as Knowles left for Penn State.
When Patricia was hired to take over the defense, many began to question what shape the system would take in 2025. Some assumed that the veteran NFL coordinator would anchor the best player at his listed position of free safety and focus instead on finding three new starters to play alongside him in the secondary.
But as the season grew closer, the rumor mill grew hot as word leaked that Downs was practicing at the nickel spot. Some wonder aloud if Patricia had already screwed up before the first snap of the season, screwing up the one sure thing in his new unit.
| Year | Deep Safety | Box (LB/DL) | Slot Corner | Cornerback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 Alabama | 287 | 306 | 268 | 28 |
| 2024 Ohio State | 393 | 350 | 160 | 11 |
For those who paid close attention, however, this wasn't news at all.
Downs has spent only a fraction of his time playing in a deep safety role since debuting in Nick Saban's final Alabama defense as a true freshman in 2023, lining up everywhere from cornerback to linebacker in an effort to create the best possible matchups.
During media availability this summer, Ryan Day and his staff have been coy about the details, yet they have not shied away from admitting that Downs will continue to line up all over the defense this fall. It's clear that their intention is not to build a scheme around their best 11 players, but rather around the single best one.
Moving Downs closer to the ball, as we saw quite often during the four CFP contests last season, allows him to be more involved in the action on early downs, rather than sitting 15 yards from the ball as it's snapped.
“Closer to the box, closer to the action," Downs said Tuesday when asked what he likes about playing in the slot. "And then you get a lot more chances to be at the point of attack of the football.”
But as scouting and game planning continue to get more advanced, Downs can't line up in the same spot each snap. Offenses are good enough to take him out of a given play with prescriptive schemes such as RPOs. Knowing it's his job, for instance, to defend a bubble screen while playing in the slot, an opposing play-caller might simply attach one to every run play without ever throwing the ball, just to keep #2 out of the play.
Such an approach is nothing new to Patricia, who famously cut his teeth under Bill Belichick and was known for building game plans that looked completely different from week to week. By all accounts, he and his staff plan to employ such a philosophy this fall.
"What's the attack of the offense? You know, that's part of it, too," said safeties coach Matt Guerreri this week when asked about how he'll deploy Downs. "How are they trying to build the offensive structure? Where can we put him to be able to impact the game?"
With that in mind, Downs' versatility will allow the staff to show different looks from otherwise specialized personnel groupings. As Patricia and his staff work to identify which of the many new faces can be relied upon come Saturday afternoons, Downs can change the shape of the entire unit as needed to make different alignments work.
What shouldn't be lost in all this is what makes Downs so special to begin with.
He's a great athlete, to be sure, but scouts don't expect him to break any records at the combine. Instead, it's that innate vision and mind for the game that allows him to diagnose and react to what he sees from the opponent.
"He understands the game at a high level," Walton said of his star pupil. "He can process things very fast. He’s next level when it comes to that stuff. He has an NFL mindset.”
That's high praise for any player at the college level, but virtually unheard of for one who is still too young to buy a drink. Downs may have stood out from the day he arrived in both Tuscaloosa and Columbus, but what leadership he showed came mostly by example.
After being voted captain this season, however, Downs has recognized that it's now part of his job to share that vision with the other players around him.
“I feel like God has blessed me with an innate ability to see the game, and I feel like it’s my job to share it with my teammates," Downs said. "So there’s no other way to say it. If I want us to be the best team that we can be, I have to share that knowledge with everybody else.”
Regardless of what happens this season, Downs will always be remembered for his role in bringing home Ohio State's ninth national championship. However, if he can elevate a new cast of characters into yet another championship unit, he could be considered one of the best to ever don the Scarlet and Gray.
